Performance Review
by Scarlett88
Summary: During the performance review season, Peggy is surprised at who is giving her feedback.


**A/N: I haven't rewatched 'Mad Men' in some time now, but there are notes and snippets of unfinished stories that I am looking to polish off and share with others. While Peggy and Ted were never my primary focus on the show, their relationship together was sweet and professional, and I wish there could have been more to it on the screen. That being said, please feel free to read and review.**

There was word going around the offices that McCann Erikson wanted performance reviews for the employees of Sterling Cooper and Partners. It started this morning with a memo from one secretary to another, and everything took off from there. Office staff were looking over their shoulder to see who was watching them and what was being reported to Ted Chaough, who was deemed in charge of the evaluations for several key staff members.

It was only natural for Peggy Olson to believe that her boss, and one time paramour Ted Chaough would be assessing her value to the company and giving her notes and critiques. Over the past week she found herself looking forward to the process. As a young girl she thrived on feedback on everything from schoolwork to housework, she strived for improvement.

The upcoming performance review was the closest contact that Peggy was going to have with Ted in the past year. She met Ted a few years ago, after leaving Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for Cutler Gleason and Chaough. He was different from every other authority figure she ever met. There was an instant spark, he put her at ease right away and it felt as though she had already known him for years. He was open, receptive to her ideas and included her in major decisions. He gave her a title, Copy Chief, which she never would have gotten at Sterling Cooper. And she was happy. He was seemingly happily married to Nan in her eyes, which made him perfectly unattainable. There was no issue of impropriety in the office and no romantic fantasies, at least not on her end. Ted was considered 'safe' for her, and she loved him for being safe, and for being one of the best employers she ever had.

All of that changed the night that he kissed her. She came into his office late one night to find him struggling with the television reception. The bottle of alcohol should have been a warning for her to leave the area and try talking to him the next day, but she stayed in the room, offering to help him with his endeavor. NEW One thing led to another, it was from a conversation to a kiss in the blink of an eye. She didn't pull away right away, and he had prolonged their kiss longer than he intended to. The next day, both parties were too embarrassed to what they were truly feeling. When Peggy asked Ted if she needed to work somewhere else, he had told her no, and that was essentially the end of their romantic conversation.

Which led them to where they were now. They were overly professional with each other, addressing each other on a first name basis only, both going out of the way to prove that there was nothing beyond a professional relationship going on.

"Here's your slip Miss Olson."

Peggy lifted her head from her work to thank the secretary handing her the information for her performance review. Scanning the paper, her eyes narrowed at the name of the individual performing the review: _Donald Draper. _She didn't bother to read anything else beyond the name, crumbling the paper in her hands and storming down the hall.

Without knocking first, Peggy opened the door to Ted's office.

"Miss Olson, what brings you in here?" Ted stood, seemingly bewildered at why one of his copy editors would enter unannounced.

Peggy shook her head and closed the door, thrusting the paper onto Ted's desk. "What is this?"

Ted unfolded the document, a small smile forming on his mouth. "It looks like it was once a performance review memo, though it seems to have had better days."

"This isn't funny to me. Look at the name on the memo."

"I don't have to look at the name. I have a few of the other partners conducting performance evaluations on behalf of McCann Erikson and the individual on the slip is the perfect reviewer for you." Sensing her frustration, he continued. "Don Draper has known for years, longer than I've known you, he's been your champion from the start – and he'll give you a fair review."

"Meaning that you won't?"

"I won't what?"

Peggy raised her hands in exasperation. "What are we doing here? What have we been doing for the past year? Since the merger, since that night…"

Ted stopped her with a raised hand. "We both agreed we weren't going to talk about what happened ever again."

"You agreed," Peggy countered. "You agreed and I had no choice but to go along with it."

"Peggy…"

"You told me that you didn't want me to leave for another agency. So I stayed; I've been here working for months with and without you, trying to ignore what happened and I just can't seem to."

"Lower your voice," Ted instructed, crossing over to the other side of the desk. "I was drunk that night."

"Would you have kissed me if you were sober? Did you want to kiss me that night?"

Ted bit his lower lip. "It doesn't matter what my answer is because we are both involved with other people. I have Nan and you – you have Abe."

"At one point you said you were in love with me," Peggy said softly, looking down at the carpeting. "Abe's never said that to me, no man ever has."

Ted carefully placed his right hand on her shoulder. "I care about you too much to lose you completely. If we were to start something now…"

"Other people have done it. Who's saying that we can't?"

"You are worth more to me than some tawdry affair, I won't cheapen you like that."

Peggy pursed her lips together. Once again, she felt as though she was being put up on a pedestal by someone else. "I'm not Saint Peggy," she pointed out.

"You're my Peggy," he whispered, placing his other hand on her shoulder.

"I've missed you these past few months."

"I feel the same way. We're in the same building, working on the same accounts but I feel miles away from you."

"I was looking forward to your performance review; I wanted to know what you thought of me. And when I saw Don's name…all I could think about was how we don't talk anymore – outside of work that is."

"Talking leads to other things."

"They could be nice things," Peggy said with a small laugh.

"Wonderful things, but in order for them to happen…."

"Are you willing to leave Nan?"

Ted shook his head. "It'd be more than leaving Nan; the kids – even though I wouldn't be leaving them, I'd be breaking up their home."

"I don't want you to do that."

"And I told you that I won't settle for an affair with you."

"The kids have to go to college sometime right?" Peggy asked hopefully.

Ted closed his eyes to count in his mind. "In around ten years, give or take a few."

"Where does that put us? I can't stay here with us being overly polite to each other. I'd rather leave and start over somewhere else…"

"I would never let you leave," Ted insisted. "I shouldn't have assigned you to Don without an explanation to you first, and I don't want to be pushing you away. I don't even know how to be around you sometimes."

"We're in the same boat there. But you're one of the best supervisors I've ever had and if I lost you…"

"You haven't," he assured her. "We can't forget that kiss, but we can both choose to move past it and put it on the backburner."

"For the next several years."

"Unless something happens. She could always leave me you know," he scoffed.

"You wouldn't fight for her?" Peggy queried.

"There's someone else that I'm already fighting for. Someone who's whip-smart and professional – someone who can hold her own with any man in the room."

"Sounds like she would get an excellent performance review," Peggy noted with a raised eyebrow.

"It's stellar – but it's not getting written down in the performance logbook."

Peggy extended her hand to Ted. "I'm okay with that. Now that I know where we both stand."

Ted accepted her hand, and a spark of static electricity hit both of them. "See you at the next morning meeting."

Peggy nodded her head, opening the door and heading back to her desk. After every good mark there was a little celebrating to do, and though she couldn't celebrate with the person that she wanted to, there was still the satisfaction in reveling in a job well done.


End file.
